NASA Tests Inflatable Lunar Shelters

The "planetary surface habitat and airlock unit" was delivered to NASA Langley last October for ground-based evaluation of emerging technologies such as health monitoring of flexible structures.

Credit: NASA/Jeff Caplan

NASA is
preparing to test an inflatable structure that might one day be used to establish
an outpost on the Moon.

Created by
NASA contractor ILC Dover LP, the pumped-up structure sits poised for tests at
the agency's Langley Research Center in Virginia.

"Right now
it is a concept demonstrator," said Inflatable Structures Project Leader Karen
Whitley. "We use it for publicity and tours and exhibits for senior staff.
We've had several congressmen come here to see it."

The
inflatable structure is made of multilayer fabric and looks
like an ungainly white robot with legs. The main unit is 12 feet in
diameter and 18 feet tall. It has a volume of about 1,600 cubic feet and is
connected to an airlock, also inflatable. The two spaces are essentially
pressurized cylinders, connected by an airtight door.

Judith Watson,
the Structure Material Mechanism project lead at Langley, said her team is drawing plans to conduct structural tests
on the prototype in the coming months.

"We also
want to look at logistics: how well this is actually going to package up, how
much mass it actually has, how do you arrange the internal parts [to create]
sleeping quarters, walls and floors," Watson told SPACE.com. "Those are
some of the issues we're going to be tackling in the next year or two."

Inflatable
structures are just one of the construction types NASA is considering for an
outpost on the Moon.

"There are
quite a few different options that they're looking at," Watson said. "They're
not restricting themselves to expandable structures."

Whitley
says the biggest advantage of expandable structures is they can be compressed
into a small volume for launch.

NASA
envisions a lunar outpost as being a testing ground in preparation for a longer
journey to Mars.

"The idea
behind us having an outpost on the Moon is to give us a chance to practice and
learn before we go to Mars," Watson said. "The Moon is a lot closer...We have the
ability to try out the technology in a safer environment before we send people
on a three plus years mission to Mars, where they have no backup."

NASA says
testing of inflatable habitats on the Moon could begin in 2020. As currently
envisioned, a lunar outpost would begin with four-person crews making several
seven-day visits to the Moon until their power supplies, rovers and living
quarters are operational.

The mission
would then be extended to two weeks, then two months and ultimately to 180
days.

In a
related development, NASA will team up with the National Science Foundation to
begin field testing of a similar inflatable structure in Antarctica either later this year or early
next year.

NASA faces
competition for setting up a lunar outpost from at least one private company. Austin's Stone Aerospace, Inc, in Texas recently
announced plans tocreate a lunar mining station to prospect for frozen water and other resources
by 2015.

Another
company, Bigelow Aerospace, plans to launch free-floating modules to create an
orbital habitat that could support visiting crews of up to three people by the end of the decade.